We wish our readers every blessing this Easter, and may it be a time for renewal for all of us. With our warmest wishes, The Journey with Omraam Team.

‘The great Christian feast of Spring season is Easter, the feast that commemorates Christ’s Resurrection. In this feast, the life of nature and the life of the soul coincide. If you are familiar with the science of symbols, you know that the life of an Initiate corresponds to the life of nature: an Initiate’s life is a succession of symbolic episodes which follow each other in a certain order in view of a well-defined goal.

Easter and the Four Cardinal Feasts
In the course of a year, as the sun moves round the circle of the Zodiac, it travels through the four points known as the equinoxes and the solstices. The equinoxes correspond to the two days of the year when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of equal length. These two days are March 21 and September 21. The solstices, on the other hand, correspond to the two days on which the angle between the sun and the equator is at its maximum. These are December 21, the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year, and June 21, the summer solstice and the longest day of the year.

To these four points in time, the solstices and the equinoxes, correspond four so-called Christian Cardinal Feasts: Christmas, Easter, St John the Baptist and St Michael Archangel. These feast-days were instituted by the Initiates as a reminder to human beings that, on those days, the sun sets particularly powerful currents in motion in the universe and that, if they are aware of them, human beings can draw on these currents and use them to advance their evolution.

The Four Cardinal Feasts are each under the influence of an Archangel
The passage from one season to the next occurs at these four points, each of which is a nexus of extraordinary forces proper to each season. The seasonal forces are organized and regulated by very powerful spirits under the command of which are many lesser spirits whose task is to distribute these energies and forces to every part of the planet.

You must not think that everything happens automatically in nature; on the contrary, a whole host of spirits are actively involved. Some of them have been specially entrusted with the care of rocks, plants, animals and men, and all the seasonal changes that occur are the result of their activity.

Let’s begin by talking about the spring equinox which falls on March 21 and which is under the influence of the Archangel Raphaël. It is Raphaël who gives orders to the entities under his command to work with the vegetation of the world and to distribute the forces of growth and regeneration.

Ask the Archangel Raphaël to reveal to you the secret powers of plants, seeds and flowers
The Archangel Raphaël dwells in the sphere of Mercury and his name means ‘God the Healer’ or ‘Divine Physician’. The mission of this Archangel and of the Angels under his command is to work on the divine power and give it the virtue of healing. Each of the Archangels that govern the other seasons works with this same divine power and communicates to it other wavelengths and other virtues.

The Ancients knew exactly when and how to communicate with Raphaël by the use of appropriate formulas and, in this way, his science of the healing properties of plants was revealed to them. The Greek god of medicine, Asclepios (the Roman Aesculapias), was in contact with the forces of Hermes (or, as the Romans called him, Mercury); it is not surprising, therefore, that, for thousands of years, the Caduceus of Hermes has been the symbol of medicine.

At Easter the new spiritual sap should rise within us and bring new life to our subtle bodies
Think of these things when spring comes, and remember to unite yourself to the Archangel Raphaël; ask him to reveal to you the secret powers of plants, seeds and flowers so that you may benefit from the virtues that emanate from them.

When nature comes back to life in the spring, it reminds human beings that they too, must come back to life, not physically, perhaps—that is hardly possible—but spiritually. Just as trees and plants receive a new influx of life with the rising sap, man must work to cause the new spiritual sap to rise within him and bring new life to his subtle bodies.

The life of Jesus was patterned on the development of the earth and of the cosmos: it is a symbol that has universal significance. Like Jesus, the universe was born; like him, it will be crucified and, like him, it will rise from the dead.’

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
Sèvres, 29 September 1958

Complete Works Volume 32 The Fruits of The Tree of Life Life 
Chapter 17, The Cardinal Feasts